Product Catalog
Thinking beyond the Schmidt-Cassegrain.
Like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, almost every professional observatory reflector in the world today uses
a Coma-Free optical system. So it’s no surprise that Meade engineers chose their Advanced Coma-Free design
as the ideal optical configuration. This design improves on the traditional Ritchey-Chrétien design by adding
a corrector lens to reduce astigmatism and diffraction spikes. For details see pg. 49. Then Meade engineers
designed the LX400-ACF’s mechanical and electronic systems from a clean slate (and thousands of amateur
astronomer suggestions) to ensure it would become the most capable telescope in company history.
For serious research or fast, flatter, wide-field fun.
Recognizing the growing popularity of astrophotography, Meade chose a fast (f/8) focal ratio for the LX400-
ACF series. This offers astrophotographers optimal speed in combination with a large, coma-free field of
view (from edge-to-edge). Despite all of its visual and technical prowess, an LX400-ACF is just plain fun.
Sky & Telescope says, “One aspect of the LX400-ACF that repeatedly amazed me [was] ease of use. Working
with the LX400-ACF was a very pleasant out-of-the box experience. In a perfect world all products would
be like this…”
Observatory-precise pointing and tracking.
The LX400-ACF’s mechanical systems are complex. But what really matters is results. Sky & Telescope described a
first experience autoguiding the LX400-ACF with a large format CCD camera. After a few initial set-up procedures…
“the numbers looked good, so I tried a 5-minute autoguiding exposure. The image was perfect… I went on to
make 15 more 5-minute exposures that night, and every one was a keeper!”
We thought of everything. Then made it electronic.
From electronic focusing and collimation, to electronic drive-training and sensor calibration, from electronic
temperature controls to electronic High-Precision Pointing (HPP), the LX400-ACF can help you do anything
from imaging Saturn to imaging an 18th magnitude galaxy too dim to visually confirm before you take the
shot (see pgs. 92, 93).
Adding on to your LX400-ACF.
Your LX400-ACF is absolutely the telescope of a lifetime. See pgs. 130-143 for additional accessories that will
help your scope grow with you for years to come.
A success story fresh off the drawing board.
On March 26, 2002, Meade engineers set out to design a telescope with the
most sophisticated optics, mechanics and electronics ever manufactured.
If successful, the new scope would make observatory-level performance
accessible to any serious astronomer or astrophotographer who desired it.
The 2006 LX400-ACF review in Sky & Telescope magazine said, “Meade
claimed that one of its goals in developing the LX400-ACF li ne was
to address various problems… that had dogged Schmidt-Cassegrains
for more than 30 years. My feeli ng is that the company r eally has
succeeded. Even when you judge it by the dem a nding criteria imposed
by long-exposure imaging, the LX400-ACF is a winner.